I'm wondering about doing a stop over as well on the way over...the pro/cons and cost. How long was your stop over? Are you glad you did it? It is about a 13 HR direct flight from Vancouver so not too bad, but would be nice to break it up a bit.

Char: I HIGHLY recommend a stopover in Hawaii. We have had five days (4 nights) here - though just a couple would have been fine too. The time difference between NZ and Hawaii is only two hours, so it should be easier for us to adjust now that we are used to Hawaii time instead of west coast time (which has a 5 hr time difference). The flight from HNL to AKL is 9.5 hrs approx too...

We are here! Visited the dogs at QPS (just a concrete room, but part of a necessary process). Slightly jet lagged but it feels good to be "home". Sun came out for us today for a while too. Spent the afternoon in a daze wandering around Countdown supermarket, where I was pleasantly surprised at the prices of most groceries...more to follow.
Amy.